Turnbull would say sorry to Aborigines

By Staff reporter

In one of his first acts after winning Saturday's federal election, Mr Rudd promised he would make an apology to the stolen generations in his first term of government. He has yet to reveal the exact wording of the apology.

Former prime minister John Howard continually refused during his 11-and-a-half years in power to say "sorry" to Aboriginal Australians.

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However, Mr Turnbull told the ABC's Radio National this morning that was a mistake, saying Mr Howard got tangled up in "ideology".

"Clearly we should have said sorry then," he said.

"Unquestionably that was an error I'd say about a friend, John Howard.

"I think John got himself into a bit of a semantic tangle there. And you know getting into semantics about regret versus sorry, that's a waste of time.

"But having said that it's one things to say sorry, you should do that, but the critical thing is getting the substance right."

Mr Turnbull said there was no question Labor had a mandate to change the contentious Work Choices industrial relations laws.

"What the responsible approach for us is (is) not to allow ourselves to be so traumatised by the defeat that we say 'oh, get rid of everything'," he said.

He said the party had a responsibility to look at the changes being proposed, "recognise that they have a mandate and then respond accordingly".

"We have to be very vigilant to make sure that we examine the detail," he said.

Mr Turnbull ssaid his party is at its lowest ebb, but he has the energy and the ideas to help it win the next election.

But he also warned the 63-year-old political party that without renewed energy it could retreat further at the next federal election.

"I can deliver the energy, the new ideas, the commitment, to ensure that we get off the mat and get moving," Mr Turnbull said on radio.

"We have to recognise that the Liberal side of politics has taken an enormous battering.

"We're out of government in every state and territory and now federally.

"We are in the lowest ebb we've been in really since Menzies put the party together in the 1940s.

"There's no point kidding ourselves. Times are grim.

"But if we galvanise ourselves, if we present a new face, new policies and new energy, we can get off the mat and get moving and win in 2010.

"But we have to start now."

Mr Turnbull said he was not running for the leadership on a ticket and did not have a deputy in mind.

"The choice of the deputy, just as is the choice of the leader, is in the party's hands," he said.

Mr Turnbull said a terrible torpor had set into Liberal ranks at the state level, where Labor is in power across the country.

"There's been a terrible pattern at the state level where Liberal governments have lost office," he said.

"They've gone into a sort of a torpor, a funk, call it what you will, and then they've gone backwards again at the next election.

"We will have, after this election, a number of seats which used to be pretty safe but are now on wafer-thin margins.

"We could lose all of those, and that's what Labor would be looking to do in 2010 if we do not have real momentum and public support pushing us forward again in 2010."

Mr Turnbull said he was not like outgoing leader John Howard and not an ideologically-driven person.

"We're two completely different people," he said.

"My approach would be one that is much more objective about policies.

"I am not an ideological person. I am a practical person. I come with a long experience in business."

Mr Turnbull said history would judge whether Mr Howard had stayed too long in the Liberal leadership.

"I think, with the benefit of hindsight, that will undoubtedly be the judgement of history," he said.

"John Howard is in his last days as prime minister. He's packing up his house and so forth. I don't want to sit here today and criticise John Howard. This is not the time for it.

"But the proposition (that he stayed too long) is one that will be universally held by historians.

"Of course, we all have 20-20 vision in hindsight."

Mr Turnbull said Mr Howard had made plenty of mistakes, as every prime minister had, but also "did an enormous amount of good".

"Australia is a stronger place, a stronger country, for his leadership in every respect and I think today's a day to be generous about John Howard," he said.